A Tech Company Summerš Party: Hereās What I Learnt
I donāt know about your place, but our company has enforced fun during the summer. For 3 days we need to all meet together, get very little work done and
Party
A few of our number had great excuses:
Pregnancy
Dog died
Live too far away
But most of us needed to go and enjoy it.
It was horrible
The Party
Covid took out last yearās party, so a real determination took hold this year to make the party the biggest and the best ever.
This meant Karaoke, awards, and drink (pretty much all at the same time).
Got to be fine, right?
Enforced fun
You need to enjoy yourself, right? There are free drinks
If you donāt drink, sit quietly or something
Thatās right. If you donāt drink of course non-alcoholic alternatives are provided. What isnāt provided is a non-alcoholic culture.
Those who felt pushed out needed to hide what was happening
Exclusive?
Everyone is invited.
Happen to be Muslim and not into overtly white music?
The party is open to all, as long as you like exactly what the white male leadership like
Over 30 and less entertained by the bro-drinking culture
Cheer up, grandad
Itās no surprise that promotions only seem to go to the heavy-drinking male type.
Thatās not a type?
Canāt believe the Secret Developer doesnāt have an editor
Clique central
We had some light-hearted rewards for the best staff
Most of them had already had promotions
Thatās right. Things like:
The mom of the company
The real CEO
The person who is always early to meetings
They were all either demeaning or low-level offensive.
Everyone really enjoyed them
Which was not a surprise to anyone who has been in this type of company.
The cost
If you are not āintoā the fun we have, youāre not a team player.
Whatās worse is, if the interview process hadnāt prevented any sort of diverse workforce from being in place.
This means that lots of decisions are, shall we say, not considered.
You should see the feedback we get from our customers about the changes in our pricing plan.
Ouch
That isnāt to say a more diverse workforce would prevent us from doing a stupid thing. It might make it less likely.
Shouldnāt we all do the best we can to make a better product?
I know, we developers shouldnāt care